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Q&A with Luc Chamberland: The eight-year journey to make Seth's Dominion

Author of the article:

Peter Robb • Ottawa Citizen

Publishing date:

September 17, 2014 • 3 minute read

Luc Chamberland took eight years to finish Seth's Dominion.

Luc Chamberland is the director of the film Seth’s Dominion. He tells Peter Robb how the documentary got made.

Q. Why did you want to do a film about Seth?

A. I’m quite fascinated by comic books, bandes dessinées in French. I grew up reading the Belgian magazine Spirou, which published all the greatest Franco-Belgian comic book artists of the day (except, of course, Hergé, whose work ran in Tintin magazine). I lived in London for 15 years, and finding French comic books in the U.K. was a chore. But then one day I discovered Seth. Here was a Canadian comic book artist who was bringing a European sensibility to the graphic novel. He was just dealing with everyday life, but every little detail was magnified and sharpened and explored. I became an avid reader of his work

Q. How did you approach your subject?

A. When I approached Seth, I didn’t know what direction it would take. Whether it was going to be with him, or about him, I had no idea. Seth and I discussed what we did not like about various films done on cartoon artists. We agreed that we would not do anything remotely similar to them. And then I found out that Seth kept diaries in cartoon form. These were unpublished — Seth gave me access to them. Most of the writing was about memories: what memories do to us and how they influence Seth’s own work. And with that, an idea started to form for a film about how our memories shape us. We sometimes never realize that all the turmoil and angst that we keep bottled up inside might just evaporate if we could learn to control our inner demons.

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Q. Is the creative process an overriding interest of yours?

A. The creative process, and what makes us make things, is something I’m very curious about. The mind comes up with the idea and the body executes it. I think we are all curious about what makes us tick. Seth is such a fascinating creative artist, and because he gave me carte blanche, I was able to scratch the surface of that big iceberg that is creation.

Q. Can you lay out for me the time this took?

A. It took quite a while for the film to come together. I filmed Seth an average of once a year — usually over a three-day long weekend — for seven years. Meanwhile, I was teaching storyboarding and animation part-time at Concordia University and the Cégep du Vieux Montréal. I was doing three or four commercials a year and I directed about six pilots for TV shows, including one that became a very successful series, Wild Kratts. In my spare time I would work with various teams on animation for the film about Seth, so all of a sudden eight years had gone by. I suppose I could have done the film in 12 to 14 months working full-time on it—with the help of a team, of course.

Q. What’s next for the film?

A. The world premiere will be at the Ottawa International Animation Festival on Friday with a second screening on Saturday. The international premiere will be in London at the Raindance Film Festival Oct. 4, and we’re getting a lot of interest from other big film festivals. There’s a real buzz around the film, and frankly this is pretty exciting for us, and me personally.